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| Parthenium argentatum L. |
Guayule (Parthenium argentatum), pronounced 'why-YOU-lee', is a shrub in the genus Parthenium of the family Asteraceae, native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, in the states of Texas, Zacatecas, Coahuila, Chihuahua San Luis Potosi, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas[1][2]. Carl Linnaeus (Latinized as Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as, May 23 new style (13 May old style 1707 who laid the foundations for A shrub or Bush is a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category of Woody plant, distinguished from a Tree Parthenium is a genus in the family Asteraceae. Notable species in this genus include the Guayule. The family Asteraceae or Compositae (known as the aster, daisy, or sunflower family) is the largest family of Flowering The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. Zacatecas is one of the 31 constituent states of Mexico. It is located in the north-central region and it is bounded to the northwest by Durango Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of Mexico 's 31 component states. San Luis Potosí is the name of both a state in Mexico and that state's capital city Nuevo León ( Spanish for "New León " after the former kingdom in Spain) is a state located in northeastern Mexico. Tamaulipas is one of the 31 states of Mexico, it is located in the northeast The plant can be used as an alternate source of latex that is also hypoallergenic, unlike the normal Hevea rubber. LaTeX (ˈleɪtɛ Hypoallergenic is a term coined by advertisers (based on the Greek prefix Hypo meaning "below normal" or "slightly" and first used in a cosmetics The Pará rubber tree ( Hevea brasiliensis) often simply called rubber tree, is a Tree belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae In pre-Columbian times, the guayule was a secondary source of latex for rubber, the principal source being the Castilla elastica tree. Castilla elastica, the Panama rubber tree, is a tree native to the tropical areas of Mexico and Central America which was in Pre-Columbian The name "guayule" derives from the Nahuatl word ulli/olli, "rubber". Nahuatl ( is a group of related languages and dialects of the Aztecan or Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family
For sustainable production, guayule grows well in arid and semi arid areas of the southwestern United States, North Central Mexico and regions with similar climates around the world. Because the guayule plant produces terpene resins, which are natural pesticides, it is resistant to many pests and diseases. Terpenes are a large and varied class of Hydrocarbons, produced primarily by a wide variety of plants particularly Conifers though also by some insects such Resin, not to be confused with Rosin, is a Hydrocarbon Secretion of many Plants particularly coniferous trees. Herbicides are primarily necessary for stand establishment.
In the 1920s, the plant saw a brief and intense amount of agricultural research when the Intercontinental Rubber Company in California produced 1400 tons of rubber after leaf blight decimated the Brazilian rubber industry. Then again during World War II when Japan cut off America's Malaysian latex resources. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. LaTeX (ˈleɪtɛ The war ended before large-scale farming of the guayule plant began, and the project was scrapped, as it was cheaper to import tree-derived latex than to crush the shrubs for a smaller amount of latex.
Recently, the guayule plant has seen a small but growing resurgence in research and agriculture due to its hypoallergenic properties. Hypoallergenic is a term coined by advertisers (based on the Greek prefix Hypo meaning "below normal" or "slightly" and first used in a cosmetics While Hevea-derived rubber contains proteins that can cause severe allergic reactions in a few people, guayule does not. The Pará rubber tree ( Hevea brasiliensis) often simply called rubber tree, is a Tree belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae With the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, the surge in rubber-glove usage revealed how many people were allergic to latex (about 10% of health-care workers, according to OSHA), and thereby created a niche market for guayule. There are synthetic alternatives for medical device products, but they are just not as stretchy as natural rubber. Guayule performs like Hevea but contains none of the proteins that cause latex allergies.
Selection of high-yielding guayule is complicated by its breeding system, which is primarily apomixis. However, the breeding system is somewhat variable and considerable genetic variation exists within wild populations. Selection of high-yielding lines has been successful (Ray et al. 2005).
The company leading the commercialization of guayule as an industrial crop is Yulex Corporation founded in 1997 by Daniel R. Swiger, manufacturing and producing guayule rubber for medical devices and specialty consumer products that are safe for people who have latex allergy. Yulex Corporation has cultivated proprietary, high-yielding lines of guayule with agricultural operations concentrated in Arizona as well as some operations in Queensland, Australia. Yulex rubber is marketed as a cost-effective, clinically proven solution to the serious health risks posed by Hevea-derived latex products imported from Southeast Asia.
In April 2008, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration cleared for marketing the first device made from guayule latex, the Yulex Patient Examination Glove, which was submitted by Yulex Corporation. [3]
Guayule's viability as a potential biofuel has been enhanced recently in light of commentary from a variety of experts, including Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute, stating that "[food based] biofuels pit the 800 million people with cars against the 800 million people with hunger problems"[4], meaning that biofuels derived from food crops (like corn) raise world food prices. Guayule can be an economically viable biofuel crop that doesn't increase the world's hunger problem[5]. Guayule has another benefit over food crops as biofuel - it can be grown in areas where food crops would fail.
External links
Further reading
- Industrial Crops & Products, Volume: 22, Issue: 1, July, 2005
References
- Ray, D. T. , Coffelt, T. A. , and Dierig, D. A. 2005. Breeding guayule for commercial production. Industrial crops and products 22(1): 15–25.
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